Multilateralism and the multinational enterprise

Lawton, Thomas C., Lindeque, Johan P. and McGuire, Steven M. (2009) Multilateralism and the multinational enterprise. Business and Politics, 11 (2). ISSN 1369-5258

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Abstract

How do multilateral institutions influence the strategic choices and actions of international managers? This paper addresses the question by exploring the impact of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) decision-making process on multinational enterprises (MNEs). We discuss the three phases of the WTO decision-making lifecycle - the formulation of trade rules, the implementation of those rules, and the enforcement of the rules - and propose a strategic adjustment framework for understanding how companies alter their strategies and structures in response to the WTO's rules and operations. We argue that the increased relevance of multilateral rules and enforcement mechanisms - embodied in the WTO - is an important influence on MNE strategies and structures because of the increasing embeddedness of the WTO in national levels of regulation. We illustrate this through examples taken from the pharmaceutical, textiles and sugar industries sectors that have witnessed substantial multilateral regulation.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Funding Information: necessary catalyst for the major reform. Australia, strongly supported by Thailand and Brazil, led a WTO challenge to the sugar regime in 2003, arguing that the price support mechanism violated the EU’s obligations under the WTO’s agriculture agreement. Australia had been a beneficiary of the Commonwealth Sugar Agreement (CSA) until its expiry in 1974, but was not included in the Lomé Sugar Protocol (Ackrill and Kay, 2009). The dispute panel agreed, and asked the EU to comply by dramatically reducing its subsidies and curtailing its preferential treatment of ACP sugar. In a statement acknowledging the defeat, the European Commission noted that “the EU respects the multilateral trading system and of course will comply with its international obligations” (European Commission, 2005, p. 1).
Uncontrolled Keywords:	multinational enterprises,pharmaceuticals,sugar,textiles,world trade organization,industrial relations,political science and international relations ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1400/1410
Faculty \ School:
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	31 Jul 2024 18:28
Last Modified:	25 Sep 2024 17:57
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/96064
DOI:	10.2202/1469-3569.1274

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